1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic image display device and a method for driving the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a stereoscopic image display device that displays a stereoscopic image using a liquid crystal (LC) display panel employing a color field sequential method and an LC barrier, and a method for driving the display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, people perceive a cubic effect physiologically and experientially. In three-dimensional image display technology, a cubic effect of an object is felt using binocular parallax, which is a primary factor in recognizing a cubic effect at a short distance.
Stereoscopic images are viewed using methods involving wearing glasses and methods involving not wearing glasses. The methods involving wearing glasses include an anaglyph method of wearing blue and red colored glasses respectively for both eyes, a polarization method of wearing polarized glasses having different polarization directions respectively for both eyes, and a time division method of periodically repeating a time-divided image and wearing glasses including an electronic shutter synchronized with the period of the time-divided image. However, with the method involving wearing glasses, it is inconvenient for a user to wear the glasses and the user has difficulty in seeing objects other than stereoscopic images. Accordingly, methods involving not wearing glasses have been actively studied recently.
Typical methods involving not wearing glasses include a lenticular method that locates a lenticular lens plate, which is constructed such that a cylindrical lens array is vertically arranged in front of an image panel, and a barrier method that separates left-eye and right-eye images from each other using a barrier to obtain a cubic effect.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional stereoscopic image display device using the barrier method. The stereoscopic image display device 10 includes an image panel 13 and a barrier 11.
The barrier 11 having an opaque region 11-1 and a transparent region 11-2, which are repeatedly arranged, is located in front of the image panel 13. The image panel 13 includes a right-eye pixel 13-1 and a left-eye pixel 13-2. An observer sees an image displayed on the image panel 13 through the transparent region 11-2 of the barrier 11. The left eye 15 and right eye 14 of the observer respectively see different regions of the image panel 13 even through the same transparent region 11-2. That is, the observer perceives a cubic effect such that his left and right eyes 15, 13 see images displayed on adjacent pixels through the transparent region 11-2.
A technique in which left-eye and right-eye images are respectively displayed on left-eye and right-eye regions of the image panel and the observer simultaneously sees the left-eye and right-eye images through slits of the barrier is called a space division barrier method. The space division barrier method must display the left-eye and right-eye images simultaneously. That is, the space division barrier method has a difficulty in simultaneously displaying different images on adjacent pixels of the image panel.
Further, a stereoscopic image display device, which uses an LC display panel driven by a color field sequential method that sequentially time-division-displays red, green, blue (RGB) images at a high speed to use afterimages of eyes and allows an observer to recognize a color image, requires a device capable of stably time-division-displaying left-eye and right-eye images in synchronization with time-division display of each single-color image.